Sorry, I guess this is a similar question, and I apologize for not clarifying my intentions with this new post, as I had intended to take a different direction with this.
Specifically, I'm interested in getting away from the typical, conventional designs. My first step back into this hobby since 1995 was at the 2006 CES show, where I visited Thiel, Von Schweikert, Vandersteen, Montana, etc.), and aside from different voicing, very few of the speakers clearly bested my original VR-4's in overall performance. Sure, there were $20K+ systems that were impressive, but only in scale. It could be argued that the newer designs had more detail, but each had its good and bad attributes, as all speakers do. What I realized was that something was missing in all of these conventional designs, but I couldnt put my finger on it.
It seems theres no shortage of companies putting SEAS, Scan Speak, Focal, Dynaudio and other high quality drivers in furniture quality cabinets, and with good cross-over designs, obtain excellent detail, sound staging, and spooky imaging. As Ive mentioned before, how many Legacy, Avalon and Wilson knock-offs are there???? At the risk of being objectionable, Im really put off by the price of many of these speaker systems. Incredibly, my $50 PC speaker system with subwoofer offers similar attributes, albeit on a lesser scale.
When nothing I could afford impressed at the CES show, I decided just to keep my system intact. In the meantime, I had the opportunity to attend several concerts of varying music types. After attending the concerts, I finally pin-pointed what was missing when I listened to my VR-4s; excitement. Yes they have spooky imaging, yes they throw a nice sound stage, yes they have great detail; but theyre boring.
A friend of mine is an old school audiophile, that raves about the 70s designs, particularly those from Altec and JBL. He brought my attention to a speaker called the Iconic Stonehenge, that evidently utilizes what is regarded as the pinnacle of Altecs coaxial designs. Interestingly, most of the recent fanfare seems to surround these single point source designs, from the simple Iconic Stonehenge to the ultra-expensive Cabasse and other horn based designs with a single, multi-function driver. Tannoy has been well respected for decades, and their primary technology remains unchanged, big drivers with coincident source tweeters.
What is the opinion of this type of speaker, such as the Iconic Stonehenge, Klipsch LaScala, Tannoys or Gedlees? Has anyone heard these speakers, and how would you compare them to they typical Legacy-type speaker? From what I understand, they provide dynamics well beyond what a conventional stack of cones design can, even though the drivers date back to the 70s.
Specifically, I'm interested in getting away from the typical, conventional designs. My first step back into this hobby since 1995 was at the 2006 CES show, where I visited Thiel, Von Schweikert, Vandersteen, Montana, etc.), and aside from different voicing, very few of the speakers clearly bested my original VR-4's in overall performance. Sure, there were $20K+ systems that were impressive, but only in scale. It could be argued that the newer designs had more detail, but each had its good and bad attributes, as all speakers do. What I realized was that something was missing in all of these conventional designs, but I couldnt put my finger on it.
It seems theres no shortage of companies putting SEAS, Scan Speak, Focal, Dynaudio and other high quality drivers in furniture quality cabinets, and with good cross-over designs, obtain excellent detail, sound staging, and spooky imaging. As Ive mentioned before, how many Legacy, Avalon and Wilson knock-offs are there???? At the risk of being objectionable, Im really put off by the price of many of these speaker systems. Incredibly, my $50 PC speaker system with subwoofer offers similar attributes, albeit on a lesser scale.
When nothing I could afford impressed at the CES show, I decided just to keep my system intact. In the meantime, I had the opportunity to attend several concerts of varying music types. After attending the concerts, I finally pin-pointed what was missing when I listened to my VR-4s; excitement. Yes they have spooky imaging, yes they throw a nice sound stage, yes they have great detail; but theyre boring.
A friend of mine is an old school audiophile, that raves about the 70s designs, particularly those from Altec and JBL. He brought my attention to a speaker called the Iconic Stonehenge, that evidently utilizes what is regarded as the pinnacle of Altecs coaxial designs. Interestingly, most of the recent fanfare seems to surround these single point source designs, from the simple Iconic Stonehenge to the ultra-expensive Cabasse and other horn based designs with a single, multi-function driver. Tannoy has been well respected for decades, and their primary technology remains unchanged, big drivers with coincident source tweeters.
What is the opinion of this type of speaker, such as the Iconic Stonehenge, Klipsch LaScala, Tannoys or Gedlees? Has anyone heard these speakers, and how would you compare them to they typical Legacy-type speaker? From what I understand, they provide dynamics well beyond what a conventional stack of cones design can, even though the drivers date back to the 70s.
